IT’S REGGIE’S CUP

By Graham Potter | Sunday, June 28, 2009

The Peter Moody trained Reggie turned in a dominant performance to take out the Listed Coloundra Cup over 2400m at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday.

The top weight, who thrives in the heavy going, turned the race into a procession after jockey Jim Byrne seized the initiative as early as 1000m from home when he took the mare around the field and into a clear lead. The move immediately put the pack under pressure and Reggie’s pace proved to be too hot for the chasers to handle as she stayed totally focussed on her task in her first run in blinkers.

Reggie recently changed hands at Gold Coast Broodmare sale and was due to retire after this run, but the win might extend her career with a wet track at Grafton likely to prove a tempting challenge.

Both of Reggie’s wins during the Queensland Racing Winter Carnival – the Premier’s Cup and now the Coloundra Cup – have come in heavy going. After her win in the Premier’s Cup on May 23, jockey Zac Purton labelled Reggie as being ‘a superior mudlark.’

She proved to be just that again at the weekend!

Sunshine Coast, June 27.
Caloundra Cup (Listed) - 2400m. Time: 2-48.00.
Track - Heavy 10.
1 Reggie; 2 Phaze Action; 3 Deraismes.

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Desleigh Forster (Caretaker trainer for the Peter Moody stable): “Well wait and see what Pete (Moody) wants to do. He was probably going to retire her after that run but now they will just wait and see - so long as she runs like that.

“She might go to Grafton. It’s wet, so she might go there. We’ll just see. She’s the best wet tracker here today ... there’s no better wet tracker here than Reggie.

“The other day when she raced at Eagle Farm, Craig (Williams) said she just wasn’t switched on enough and that she just wasn’t interested. So we just thought we would throw the shades on her. An eight-year-old mare and Pete said that she’d never had them on, so we thought, what do we have to lose?”

Jockey Jim Byrne: “Mid race they were going too slow and it was basically the Ipswich Cup all over again. You know the favourite (Our Lukas) was racing out the front and it was just too soft of a lead. From the time we hit the ground nothing really bugged it. It was going to be pretty hard for me to win if I just sat back there so I thought I might as well go forward.

“Coming around the 1200m I thought, it’s a nice straight run and I’ve got 57kgs and it’s pretty hard for them to pick up on this sort of track. I had to make sure she was running with a nice even tempo because it was a heavy track. If the horse is travelling through it, just keep an even tempo and you’re only asking her to sprint home 400m, so that’s basically what I did.

“You know she’s the quality horse in the field and she had the blinkers on for the first time. Pete (Moody) did a great job.”

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Alexander of Hales (B. Pengelly) and Deraismes (G. Boss) came together near the 400m when Deraismes shifted in to obtain clear running. Phaze Action (D. Browne) raced wide for the majority of the event. Jockey L. Cassidy reported that Our Lukas failed to handle today's track conditions. A post-race veterinary examination of Our Lukas failed to reveal any significant abnormalities.

When questioned regarding the performance of Alexander of Hales, B. Pengelly stated that the horse did not feel comfortably in today's track conditions and whilst he had placed the horse under pressure leaving the 800m, he was unable to make ground and the horse tired considerably over the concluding stages.

A post-race veterinary examination of Scattergun failed to reveal any significant abnormalities.